He Jiahong: How to Establish the Coordinate System of “Chinese Democracy”

First, the coordinate system of “Chinese Democracy” should be
right-based.

As the product against
despotism, the top priority of democracy is to restrict power. Western
democracy systems represented by the USA are designed for state power. It means
the coordinate system of “American Democracy” is power-based. Its vertical axis
is political parties’ taking turns in power and its lateral axis is the
separation and balance of powers. To control power from the beginning, the
person who wields the power is decided through periodic elections in western
democracy systems. Two or more parties compete with each other and take turns
in power, which remains the people’s restriction on the power-holder. As a
result, the “one-man, one-vote” general election and the opposition party
become the elements of “American Democracy”. In addition, western democratic
theories put emphasis on the separation and balance of powers. Therefore,
separation of powers and check and balance of powers are also elements of
“American Democracy”.

On the basis of Chinese
historical and cultural tradition and current social system, the political
system of China is dominated by the people’s congress regime and supplemented
by the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation led by the
Communist Party of China (CPC). Judging from the coordinate system of “American
Democracy”, China is not a democratic state apparently because China has
neither the “one-man, one-vote” general election nor the separation and balance
of powers. However, the coordinate system of “American Democracy” is not the
only evaluation standard of democracy systems.

China is a
socialist state, whose essence is to be people-oriented and put the people’s
rights first. However, as economy is developing rapidly in China, the
construction of democracy falls behind the development of society and the needs
of the people. In 2007, the report of the 17th CPC National Congress
put forward that the people’s four rights (rights of information,
participation, expression and supervision) should be guaranteed, which have had
significant meanings. The people’s rights of information and expression are the
basic ones in the four rights. Therefore, the coordinate system of “Chinese
Democracy” should be right-based. Its lateral axis is the people’s right of
information and its vertical axis is the people’s right of expression. The
progress of democracy in China is to improve these two rights.

Second, the lateral
axis of “Chinese Democracy” is the people’s right of information.

In democratic states,
the people are the masters of the country, so they are certain to have the
rights to know the government information. In direct democracy, it is
self-evident that the people have the right to be informed because they can
make decisions or express their own will only when they know relevant
information. In indirect democracy, the main problems of the people’s right to
be informed includes two aspects as follows: What are those who represent us to
decide the state affairs? How do they represent us to do that?

The
democracy system of China is based on the National People’s Congress system. So
the improvement of the democracy system shall begin with the National People’s
Congress system too. In terms of the people’s right of information, the top
priority is to ensure the people to know the deputies to the National People's
Congress, including what they are and how they do it. More specifically, the
relevant information that the people have the right to know can be divided into
four parts on the lateral axis of “Chinese Democracy”: personal information of
the deputies to the National People's Congress; family property information of
the deputies to the National People's Congress; the decision-making process of
the National People's Congress; the background of the policies made by the
National People's Congress. The realization of the people’s right of
information cannot be accomplished at one stroke. It shall follow the principle
of doing from the easy parts to the difficult ones and be implemented
gradually.

Third, the
vertical axis of “Chinses Democracy” is the people’s right of expression.

In any
democratic states, right of expression is one of the fundamental rights of the
citizens. The power-holder’s attitude to this question is the boundary between
a democratic state and a despotic state. The CPC raised freedom of speech and
freedom of the press as early as the Anti-Japanese War. Article 35 ofConstitution of the People's Republic of China provides for: “Citizens
of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of
assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.” In essence, the
main idea of right of expression is to ensure the people’s freedom to express
different opinions and criticisms. Needless to say, the people’s right to
express has not been fully guaranteed in present China.

The ways of
the enforcement of right to express are various. According to different ways
and scopes, the citizens’ right to express can be divided into four levels:
freedom to express through governmental channels; freedom to express through
nongovernmental group activities; freedom to express through traditional mass
media; freedom to express through new mass media. These four levels can be four
scales on the vertical axis of “Chinses Democracy”. We can improve and realize
the people’s right of expression in accordance with the four levels.

To achieve
the grand rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and build our motherland into a
powerful country in the world, it is essential to carry out democracy. Since
the People’s Republic of China has been established for nearly seven decades,
the Chinese people have accumulated experience and lessons in exploring
democracy and also made some progress, but there are still defects and
deficiencies. We must take the current problems seriously and explore how to
realize “Chinese Democracy” so that we can create a better social system for
the descendants of the Chinese nation.